KIRTLAND – Members of a citizen-led petition drive seeking to abolish property taxes in Ohio asked supporters during a Thursday, April 23, press conference to pitch in toward gathering the remaining signatures needed to put a constitutional amendment on the November ballot.
The Committee to Abolish Ohio’s Property Taxes states that, between 2019 and 2023, the median property tax bill in Ohio jumped 23 percent and Columbus seems incapable of fixing a broken system, riddled with perverse incentives.
Brian Massie, spokesperson for the committee, said the petition had garnered 305,000 out of 413,488 minimum valid signatures needed to put a constitutional amendment abolishing property taxes on the ballot in November.
Since a significant number of signatures may be deemed invalid, the committee has an overall goal of 620,000 signatures.
The group is on pace to reach the minimum, but not the overall goal, according to Massie, by the July 1 deadline for submission to the Ohio Secretary of State.
Volunteers have also gotten signatures from 44 of Ohio’s 88 counties, meaning signatures can now be gotten anywhere in the state.
Massie asked supporters to visit the committee’s website, axohtax.com, print a petition, gather 10 signatures from registered voters in Ohio and send it in.
“Help us push back against the socialist tyranny that has taken over the Ohio State House,” he said.
Massie also signed an “Ohioans Declaration of Independence” stating the committee’s goals that recapitulated the foundational Enlightenment values of life, liberty and property generally attributed to John Locke’s “Two Treatises on Government” and echoed in the Declaration of Independence’s “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
“I’m signing this on behalf of the committee and all those Ohioans who want freedom and liberty,” Massie said. “Can you hear us now?”
The Committee to Abolish Ohio’s Property Taxes was established, according to Massie, after repeated, failed attempts to speak with state legislators and address the problem of increasing property tax bills making homeownership too expensive for seniors and those on fixed incomes.
Massie reeled off a number of attempts to talk about the matter in Columbus that were downplayed or ignored.
“It was crystal clear to us that our representative democracy was just another illusion,” he said.
For Massie, private property ownership is the foundation of freedom and liberty, allowing families to work their way out of poverty through the transfer of wealth from one generation to another.
“We have come to realize that the property-tax issue is more than a dollars-and-cents issue,” he said.
When asked how the state is going to make communities whole after taking away their power to raise an estimated $24 billion annually for local services, Massie said it’s going to be the responsibility of state legislators to address the shortfall, not private citizens standing up for their right to private property.
“Our response to that is, ‘We’re not going to,’” he said.
A follow-up question prompted Massie to go into more detail. He said Columbus should cut unnecessary spending and restore its local government funds, then use that money to restore funding for local services, such as police, fire, emergency medical, libraries and more.
When asked if 50 percent, plus one Ohioans should have the ability to overrule local voters’ approval of property tax levies, Massie seemed ambivalent, but said the problem is big enough to merit at least considering property-tax abolition.
“Are we doing any good?” he said of local voters’ levy approvals.
A frequent critique raised by critics of the proposal is that state, county and local governments have outstanding debt in the form of bonds for capital projects, whose interest rates are calibrated based on the entity’s ability to generate revenue.
Abolishing property taxes would raise interest rates, they claim, increasing the cost of borrowing funds while cutting local governments’ revenues.
Critics also argue that eliminating property taxes would leave townships with significant losses in revenues and, as the law currently stands, no legal way to implement a sales or income tax, risking default on outstanding bonds.
Lake County Commissioner John Plecnik, who is an associate professor of tax law at Cleveland State University with a focus on the intersection of taxation and public policy, called those criticisms “barely worth discussing.”
“That’s a red herring,” he said. “At the end of the day, there are many other forms of collateral (and revenue streams) the State of Ohio and localities can provide.”
Plecnik said the committee has been in conversation with Arthur Laffer, an economist best known for his theory – the Laffer Curve – that posits an optimal tax rate exists that maximizes revenue without discouraging work and implies lowering high taxes can increase revenue by boosting taxable income.
Plecnik said abolition would pump $24 billion a year now spent on property taxes into the state’s economy, which he argued would recirculate through the economy multiple times per year, resulting in $7-$8 billion in sales tax receipts on $100 billion a year in added economic activity.
One of the loudest and most consistent criticisms of the elimination of property taxes is the negative effect it would have on public school funding, which is primarily driven by local school district property tax levies.
Massie said the 1997 DeRolph Ohio Supreme Court decision ruled the state’s public school funding system is unconstitutional due to overreliance on local property taxes, causing severe disparities.
The court ruled it violated the “thorough and efficient” clause of the Ohio Constitution, spurring years of litigation and funding formula reforms, which Massie argued have not done anything to meaningfully help children in public schools. He said school funding should be entirely handled by the state.
Gov. Mike DeWine has publicly stated that for Columbus to raise enough revenue to offset $24 billion annually, it would have to impose a 15-20 percent sales tax, which Massie characterized as both unworkable and unacceptable.
“Think before you speak,” he said.
As it stands, Massie said the committee would be willing to sit down and work with state legislators on addressing an exemption for seniors from property taxes, which he said would cost the state $3 billion a year, or 3-6 percent of its general fund budget.
Plecnik characterized this as less than the state’s annual budget growth or an inflation adjustment.
Recent property tax reform measures spearheaded by Ohio Rep. David Thomas (R-Jefferson) were welcome, but only curbed the growth in taxes, rather than cutting them.
“He can only do what (Ohio House Speaker) Matt Huffman (R-Marysville) will allow him to,” Massie said.
Massie said the committee will make a decision by mid-to-late June after reviewing the signature count whether to submit the petition for addition to the November ballot or to carry efforts into 2027.
“I want the citizens of Ohio to hear this; they can rest assured that we will not stop until we get this amendment on the ballot,” he said.
